For history buffs, Syria's embassy in the Kalorama neighborhood, located at 23rd Street NW and Wyoming Avenue, holds special significance. It's where William Howard Taft, the one-time U.S. president who also served as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, used to live.

The home is around the corner from Donald Rumsfeld's former home on Kalorama Road, the French ambassador's residence and the Embassy of Monaco.